Audacity Fund: Investing in the Next đź’Ż Years
100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre and on the eve of Juneteenth, Audacity launches to invest in Black and African crypto founders
One hundred years since the Tulsa Race Massacre in June 1921, one of the worst incidents of racial violence against black people in U.S. history, and on the eve of Juneteeth, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the U.S., we are proud to introduce Audacity — a crypto venture firm investing in Black and African crypto founders building for the next 100 years of technological and economic transformation.
Audacity will provide capital, relationships, community, and global developer talent for Black and African crypto founders building all across the world. Audacity Fund I will be focused on decentralized finance (DeFi).
Crypto for Black Economic Empowerment
Exactly 100 years after Black Wall Street was destroyed, a new black economic community has emerged via crypto. Crypto for Black Economic Empowerment (CBEE), aka the “Crypto Black Wall Street” is a collective of Black and African crypto leaders from 20 countries across 6 continents who have created a growing economy by sharing capital, knowledge, and resources within the community. CBEE members are among the highest grossing NFT artists in the world, have grown their crypto investment portfolios by 7,500%, and are leaders across a wide range of industries including art, venture, sports, policy and more.
CBEE is an example of how communities are becoming economies and movements centered around culture and creators. CBEE aims to become one of the greatest communities and aggregators of talent, capital, and opportunities globally for Africans, the Diaspora, and allies.
Erikan Obotetukudo, the Co-Founder and President of CBEE, founded Audacity to fund Black and African founder-led crypto startups unlocking the value and richness of cultures and communities worldwide.
Prior to CBEE, Erikan was a relationship manager at Linkedin where she advised asset management, hedge fund, private equity, and venture capital executives on growth. As the founder of KIN, a community of Black and African builders solving the world’s hardest problems, she traveled across 24 countries, traced the multi trillion dollar value of multicultural communities, and reached over 4 million people. She also serves as the youngest and first black board member of the Henry Kravis Leadership Institute.
Launching Audacity makes Erikan the first Black woman to launch a crypto venture fund.
Black and African Culture Meets Investing
Black and African people have been the drivers and secret sauce of multi billion dollar companies and multi trillion dollar economies for centuries. Recent technology examples include of CashApp, TikTok, Clubhouse, Apple, Tesla, and Google. Black and African culture, bodies, and intellectual property are leveraged in business to accelerate growth — often times without extending the value back to them as key influencers or market makers. It is imperative that the next generation of the internet change this and center the value of Black and African communities worldwide.
At Audacity, we’re investing in founders with access to multiple cultures and communities because we believe they have an unfair advantage in building viral technologies that tap into high value, yet overlooked markets.
Investing in crypto, culture, and community unlocks multi-trillion dollar capital flows, creates economic opportunities for the next 100 million crypto users, and transforms global supply and value chains driven by overlooked, underbanked, and underserved people.
This is our pathway to transforming the next đź’Ż years.
Bringing Africa on Chain
As the fastest growing tech market in the world, Africa and the Diaspora have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use crypto and blockchain technology to unite and build Africa together.
We’re excited to accelerate the mobilization of African and Black entrepreneurs building Africa’s future — today. Key priority areas include the convergence of fintech and crypto, the decentralization and digitization of multi-billion dollar supply chains (e.g., diamonds, coffee, chocolate, logistics), the tokenization of African intellectual property and cultural assets (e.g., music, film, sports, fashion, and more) and infrastructure (e.g., land, real estate, cities, nations, identity).
It Takes A Village
To make this đź’Ż year vision a reality, Audacity is built on Syndicate Protocol, a blockchain and social network platform that allows communities (or DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations) to collectively invest in crypto assets. This partnership enables Audacity to marry crypto, culture, community, and asset management. Check us out on Syndicate here.
Audacity Fund I is backed by a village of founding investors ranging from CBEE members (Cuy Sheffield, Ayo Akinyele, Paulin Byusa, Danielle Kayembe, Kiba Gateaux, Stefen Deleveaux, Seaun Eddy), legendary Black Wall Street pioneers, crypto and traditional VC funds ( Electric Capital, IDEO CoLab Ventures, Graywall) and crypto executives (Meltdem Demirors, Vinny Langham, Kathleen Breitman, Jalak Jobanputra).
Do you have the audacity to build the next 100 years with us?
Join our community for updates on Audacity’s investments and opportunities to shape the next 100 years together:
